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04/23/2013

AFL-CIO backs Lopez in Toledo mayor race

Anita Lopez gained the backing of a major voice in labor in her race for
mayor today.

The Toledo area AFL-CIO ( The
Greater Northwest Ohio Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO) voted unanimously
Monday night to endorse the Democratic Lucas County auditor for mayor.

“We are very excited about Anita’s campaign,”
said George Tucker, executive secretary of the labor council, and who was among
the crowd of about 300 at her announcement one week ago.

“Her policy positions are worker
friendly. Her plans to grow our economy are solid. She comes from
working class Toledo and will have the confidence of our citizens to move an
agenda forward that addresses Toledo’s biggest problems,” Tucker said.

Three weeks ago the labor council
screened Lopez along with fellow Democrat Joe McNamara and unaffiliated mayoral
candidate Alan Cox (who is the president of a city AFSCME local).

The AFL-CIO says the endorsement “highlights
the fact that the Toledo race for mayor is the top target for the Ohio AFL-CIO
in 2013.”

“It brings with it a ready field
program that will communicate with voters on Lopez’s candidacy via door-to-door
canvasses, phone calls, direct mail and work-site leafleting. The AFL-CIO
field program, often cited as a crucial component of past
campaigns in Ohio, will be rolled out in the coming weeks in every Toledo
neighborhood.”

Lopez’s ultimate opponent is Mayor
Mike Bell, who incurred organized labor’s wrath by wresting concessions out of
the city unions in 2010 by getting city council to give him the power to impose
unilateral cuts because of the city’s “exigent circumstances.” In the end the
cuts were negotiated – but under the threat of exigent circumstances.

Then the mayor supported Issue 2
(a.k.a. Senate Bill 5) in a 2011 referendum that would
have weakened public employee unions (and strengthened the hand of mayor and council, as well as school boards and superintendents). The measure failed under an intense
barrage of opposition from public employee unions, private unions, and the
Democratic Party.

“Our members are fired up and ready
to go for this race,” Tucker said of the volunteers that he said will provide the
manpower for the field effort. “In the 2011 campaign to defeat S.B. 5, we
learned who our friends are,” he said. “Anita Lopez is a friend to Toledo
workers.”

The council has more than 100 affiliate union members and while it doesn't
have its own political action fund, it encourages its member unions to support
its candidates, and it communicates directly to union members.

The AFL-CIO includes among its affiliates the building trades unions, AFSCME, Toledo Federation
of Teachers, and the Toledo police and firefighter unions.